Riot Police Disperse Protesters In Panama

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Firing birdshot and tear gas, riot police broke up a small demonstration on the Via Espana on Tuesday afternoon, touching off hours of street fights.

Police also arrested several people and beat a number of others, including Jose Faundes, the secretary of the Panama Human Rights Committee,

Faundes, a lawyer who defends members of the Civic Crusade, was standing near a station wagon with a sign identifying it as a vehicle for human rights observers.

Riot police, arriving at a nearby intersection where demonstrators had erected a barricade, charged a small group of people gathered near the car. The demonstrators fled, but Faundes remained to observe police actions.

``They hit me in the face with a rubber hose,`` Faundes said, displaying an ugly, purple bruise on his forehead. ``When I fell down, they began kicking me.``

Dr. Osvaldo Velasquez, president of the Human Rights Committee, denounced police actions, saying: ``It was totally unnecessary. Mr. Faundes did nothing and should not have been attacked.``

The Civic Crusade had called for a 3 p.m. demonstration and had predicted that as many as 10,000 people might attend.

The demonstration was scheduled to show support for a recent announcement that all Panama opposition political parties had joined with the Civic Crusade in recognizing deposed President Eric Arturo Delvalle as the legitimate chief of state.

But an erroneous notice published in the newspaper L`Estrella de Panama said that the demonstration was to begin at 2 p.m. That brought about 100 people out early.

Police charged the demonstrators with water cannons at 2:25 p.m. and dispersed the small crowd. Demonstrators fled but returned only minutes later to taunt police who charged them, firing tear gas and birdshot.

As news of the demonstration spread, opposition members began erecting barricades on streets throughout the city. They repeatedly set the barricades on fire to draw police down small side streets, where demonstrators peppered them with rocks and debris. Police responded by firing more birdshot and tear gas and by spraying some of the gases into houses and garages throughout the city.

Civic Crusade members estimated that as many as 100 people were hit with birdshot. No serious injuries were reported.

In one action, an unidentified police officer fired four shots from his pistol at demonstrators who were banging pots and pans as they stood on a building`s roof. When the officer noticed that reporters were photographing his actions, he holstered his pistol and climbed inside a police vehicle.

Apparently none of the demonstrators was hit.

``This is becoming an all-too-typical reaction. Every time we try to hold a peaceful demonstration, this is what we get,`` Civic Crusade member Roberto Brenis said.

``This time they didn`t even warn us or tell us to leave, they just turned on the water cannons and started shooting at us,`` he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, Maj. Carlos Ancona, the officer in charge of the riot police, said any demonstration that blocked traffic was illegal and would be broken up.

The small crowd of demonstrators was not blocking traffic on Tuesday afternoon. Instead, they were standing in a parking lot and on a sidewalk across the street from the riot police.

Asked by reporters why police allowed an anti-American demonstration at the U.S. Embassy on Monday night that blocked four lanes of rush-hour traffic for almost an hour, Ancona said he was not aware of any such demonstration.

``People can express their opinions as long as they don`t disrupt the public order and block traffic,`` he said. ``That`s the only reason we`re here, to make sure traffic moves.``

Demonstrators were not the only ones attacked by police on Tuesday afternoon.

Juan Camarga, a cook, was dragged from the kitchen of a fast-food restaurant where he works.

Camarga had been on his way to work and was entering the parking lot of the restaurant when a police truck rammed his car, forcing it off the road. Camarga jumped out and ran for safety as a squad of heavily armed police chased him.

He was dragged from the building and thrown into a police vehicle while protesting his innocence and demanding to know why he was being arrested. Each time he asked a question, police hit him with rubber hoses or the butts of their rifles.

Late Tuesday evening, the manager of the restaurant said he did not know where Camarga had been taken or how serious his injuries were.